I'd like to thank @mountainjewel for creating the Share Your Dreams Manifestation Magic Contest.

---

Image from my diary cover, with added filters on the edit

I've read many articles and books about manifestation, listened to countless YouTube videos about it. That if we set our minds to believe in what we want to achieve it will find us in due course. I'm a firm believer that the universe gives us exactly what we want when we need it, even hardships and difficulties. They are opportunities to grow, learn and develop. This doesn't just apply to our lives, it's a character builder too. I'm not sure where I'm going with this post so I'm not going to outline how it will unfold. Instead I intend to write from my heart and allow my instincts to freely flow into my dreams.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD

Mahatma Ghandi was an amazing human being, one who has been my idol for a long time. His quote, the subheading above, is one I really try to stand by. How can we make positive changes in the world if we do not try to make positive changes within our own lives?
I am very passionate about preserving our beautiful earth for future generations. I'd like to see us tread as lightly on this planet, respecting every aspect of it. I'd like to see humans respecting one another, learning from our different cultures and sharing ideas, tales of old, music, food and more. A world without borders and patriotism that incites hatred for that which we don't understand. In the words of John Lennon "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one"...
In case this song is stuck in your head here's the video with the lyrics as they are so beautiful:

I started to realize that the things I became passionate about and the things I wanted to change in the world. Yet what good was it for me to talk about those ideas?
I can easily make statements such as " We need to stop polluting the environment" and "Why can't humans stop having wars?"
But who am I to say that and continue to promote these wrongs by contributing to a system that is corrupt and favors money over life?

The Awakening
When I was young and just began to place my feet upon the land,
I didn't take the time to see the beauty which surrounded me,
More concerned with my clothes and hair, hardly did I have a care,
For how this world was going wrong, the cries for help within the songs,
Of people who awoke my soul and helped me learn about the woe,
My heart did bleed when I opened my eyes, to all the suffering, deceit and lies.
And so I set about to change, to right the wrongs and rearrange.

Big Dreams, Little Changes

I'd love to live in a perfect world where everyone is happy, their needs are met, where there are no wars, people get along and we aren't destroying the environment and causing the extinction of other animals and plant life on this planet.
However I am a realist and understand that this is a really huge dream to manifest and one that requires a collective conscious to achieve.

So for that reason I am starting small.

Community is important. Not just the greater community, but that within our homes. Teaching and empowering our children to respect one another, share resources and be courteous and considerate starts at home. I'd like them to learn to consume less, need less and want less. To re-use and re-purpose as much as possible so less gets thrown away. To be self-dependent, helpful and kind to others. I hope that my children learn these values and expand on them as they grow up.

In my local community a few of us are trying to make the island more sustainable. In terms of food production, trash disposal, keeping the surrounding ocean clean and encouraging a cleaner way of providing electricity to the island.
We aim to :

• Find a more energy efficient alternative to the current oil powered electricity station. We are raising awareness about solar and wind.
• To replace the current waste incinerator which produces a horrendous smell of burning plastic with a more energy efficient one, perhaps on that could help power the island. Jersey already burns their trash to create electricity so it would be great to follow suit.
• To recycle glass and plastic either on the island or start a collective pool of fundraising money to send it to the larger islands where the recycling facilities already exist.
• To encourage more people to grow their own food, or share in the island's needs and grow to help reduce the costs involved in importing fruits and vegetables.
• To encourage people to keep the environment clean and be mindful of the effects leaving trash has on wildlife and the surrounding ecosystem.

My Ideal Lifestyle

Being a complete novice with permaculture, I'd like to say that I can learn enough in the next 5 years to be able to produce all my family's fruit and vegetables. Once confident enough I'd like to sell, trade or even donate the surplus.

We would like our family to be free from the world of renting and buy a piece of land to build an efficient and off-grid home. In my head it looks a little something like this...

Once we have achieved this, I want to be as free from money as is possible. To be able to use the extra money we don't need to make other people's lives better.

Image Credit

I'd like to start by helping my local community and then extend this to travel around the world, living on as little money as possible and offering our services to help build, fix or simply donate in ways that can improve others' lives. This is certainly something that will be a little easier to achieve when the little dudes are slightly older.

In order to achieve this we would like to invest in a boat that will be just big enough to fit our family in. Sailing and navigation lessons will be one of the steps we need to start with. This would be a great way to explore the world and I really feel our family unit could grow from this experience. Whilst we are away from home I would hope that anyone who wants experience in having a homestead would donate their time to look after our property. That would enable us to travel without feeling stuck and give someone the opportunity to learn something.

Image Credit

So there it is for now. Will my dreams manifest into reality? Only time will tell. For now, I will keep reassuring myself of these goals.

What winning this contest would mean for me

I love helping others and on the Steemit platform, the SP delegation would mean that I could upvote more posts each day. I'd be able to support quality content and would like to help out those whose posts I feel are undervalued.

Thank you for taking the time to read my posts. I always look forward to comments and upvotes. Resteems welcomed too.
ONE LOVE

I am a passenger on the @ecotrain, a group of amazing people who regularly put out amazing content. If you haven't already had a look at some of the posts, I recommend taking a look.